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# Warfare in Ars Magica

#### by Mark D F Shirley

The copyright of this article remains with the original author. Articles may be copied or distributed freely for personal non-profit use, provided that the author is properly credited.

These rules were inspired by the Pendragon rules for Mass Combat.

Each commander makes rolls for all the men under his command. Fundamentally, these rolls are the same as the normal rolls made in combat, except that the combat totals are calculated differently. Firstly, the characteristics and skills that influence the combat totals are those of the commander, not the warriors doing the actual fighting. Secondly, the weapon bonuses and armour protection called for in these totals are those of the most common arms and armour carried/worn by the men in each subsection of the army. If there is a mixture, one can assume the average weapon score.

A new Casual Knowledge, Military Tactics, has been introduced with these rules, and is fully described at the end.

The six basic combat totals required for combat in Ars Magica are thus calculated in the following way:

Initiative reflects the commander's ability to get his troops to manoeuvre quickly and tactically.

INIT = Com + Leadership + Weapon Initiative Bonus + Enc

Attack represents the commander's ability to bring his men effectively into battle against the opposing force.

ATK = Int + Military Tactics + Weapon Attack Bonus + Enc

Defence represents the commander's ability to see weaknesses in his formations and to get his men to create defensive formations and to block enemy attacks. Army sections armed with missile weapons do not have a Defence total, just like in normal combat.

DFN = Com + Military Tactics + Weapon Defence Bonus + Enc

Damage indicates how much harm a force inflicts upon the opposing force. Most of this damage is inflicted through prior tactics and manoeuvring - the carry-over advantage is most important in mass combat

DAM = Weapon Damage Bonus

Soak reflects the amount of physical punishment a force can take before routing.

SOAK = Armour Protection

Combat Fatigue is very important in mass combat. Two equally matched forces can fight all day, leaving the warriors exhausted. However, an efficient commander can keep his troops fresh by ensuring a rotation of warriors, so that some can recover their breathe while others fight.

FAT = Military Tactics + Weapon Skill + Enc

Encumbrance is a measure of how much the equipment carried by the men hinders their movement. As before, either use the most common arms and armour of the force or calculate an average. In mass combat, training influences encumbrance more than physical strength. Use the Training Modifier given in the table below to determine a bonus to Encumbrance

ENC = Training Modifier + Load

    Type of force            Example                             Training
                                                                 Modifier

    completely untrained     peasant rabble                         -1

    occasional training      town militia                           +0

    regular,                 town guard                             +1
    semi-professional

    standing army            a covenant's turb, hearth              +2
                             guard of a noble

    members of permanent     army of a major noble                  +3
    army

## Quick and Dirty Mass Combat Resolution

If a battle is only a minor part of the story, or if the storyguide wants to downplay its importance, then it is suggested that the following rules are used. They are suitable for small skirmishes or less-important battles in which the PCs have no direct influence.

Carry out the combat as if it was just two opponents fighting each other, but using the Combat Totals listed above. Assume that both are in melee combat, unless one force is largely equipped with missile weapons. If one force outnumbers the other by at least 50%, then the smaller force has a -3 to all rolls. If they are outnumbered 2:1, then they have a -6 penalty, 3:1 means a -9 penalty; 4:1 means a -12 penalty, etc.

Continue the fight until one commander surrenders, retreats or is killed. Each round of combat takes about an hour. Once the war is over, use the table in the Casualties section (below) to determine casualties and wounds in the winning and losing forces.

## Tactical Mass Combat Resolution

This method is suggested for a more detailed battle with heavy player character involvement. It is not necessarily more complex than the 'Quick and Dirty' method, just more detailed.

At the beginning of each day of fighting, the commander of the army gets together with his high-ranking soldiers and decides upon a strategy for the day. This includes trying to get the enemy to fight them on their chosen ground, and deciding upon which military tactics to use. The army is often split into battalions at this point, each battalion having its own task in the upcoming battle. If the army commander decides to commit all his forces to the same goal, then there is no need for the battalions, but this generally only occurs in the smallest of armies. Most commonly there are at least 3 battalions: the main bataille (the bulk of the fighting men); the vanguard (which protects the flanks of the main bataille); and the rearward bataille (whose job it is to guard the rear).

Once both army commanders have decided how to deploy their forces, then battle is joined. Each battalion commander issues orders to the forces under his control, and the enemy engaged. Each round of combat takes about an hour to execute - sufficient time for a military tactic to be completed.

For these tactical rules, two more combat totals are needed

The Army Total. The Army Commander is the leader of the entire force. This total indicates how well versed he is in turning military theory into practice, forcing the battle to be fought on his terms, etc. The army commander is most important at the beginning of each day of fighting, when the overall deployment of the fighting men and the basic battle plan is decided upon. Generate an Army Total for each army commander:

ARMY TOTAL = Int + Military Tactics

If the army commander is advised by men more versed in war, then use their Military Tactics score instead of that of the commander.

The Battalion Total. Armies are commonly split into battalions, each one with its own battalion commander. Each battalion has a task to perform in the coming fight, and battalion commanders need to be able to effectively lead their men, and are nearly always professional warriors. Generate a Battalion Total for each battalion commander:

BATTALION TOTAL = Com + Leadership

For small armies (i.e. only one battalion), the army commander and the battalion commander are the same person.

It is suggested that players are given control of a battalion commander, whether it is one of their own characters who takes on this roll, or an NPC created by the storyguide. This means that they can participate in running part of the entire battle. There is also the potential for characters to take a more personal role in the battle - see Units, below.

## Combat Sequence

The combat sequence for mass combat is the same for armies as it is for other combats. There are two additions - at the beginning of each day of combat there is an Army Roll, and at the beginning of each round there is a Battalion Roll.

### The Army Roll

At the beginning of each day of fighting, the two army commanders apply their skill at tactics to try and get the most advantageous conditions for their men. An opposed stress roll is made, with both army commanders comparing their rolls modified by the Army Total.

For every five points (or fraction thereof) that the higher of the two rolls exceeds the other, an Army Modifier of 1 is generated for the winning commander. This accounts for the superior tactician ensuring that he is on the higher ground, for example; or, for an army relying on bowfire, that the wind is behind them.

Example: A peasant hero has managed to provoke an uprising against the cruel baron of the region. The leader of a peasant rebellion (Int +2, Military Tactics 0) has a Army Roll of 2 + 0 + 6 (a stress die), or 8. The baron (Int +0, Military Tactics 3) has an Army Roll of 0 + 3 + 8 (a stress die), or 11. The baron has an Army modifier of +1.

If either Army Roll is botched, then the commander of that army has made a grave error in his tactics. Treat the roll as been equal to the Army Total for purposes of calculating an Army modifier for the opposing leader, and treat the wound level of one of the battalions (chosen at random or by the storyguide) as being one lower when calculating casualties at the end of the day (see below).

Often of more importance than the skill of each commander is the relative size of the two forces, and the skill of the soldiers involved. Each army should be assigned a Grog Value (GV). This method allows the comparative strengths of the two armies to be directly compared. Each trained soldier or grog that sees a moderate amount of combat action is worth 1 GV. This is the typical level of most members of a covenant's turb. Each professional soldier (i.e. mercenary or permanently employed soldier) is worth 2GV. Anyone trained for mounted combat is worth 5GV. Conversely, peasant levies and militia are worth only 0.5GV, and completely untrained peasants are worth only 0.2GV. this represents the fact that not only are trained soldiers better at fighting than the average farmer, but they are more use tactically to an army commander.

Work out the total GV for each force, then divide the larger force by the smaller, and round down. The result is used to generate a bonus to the Army Modifier of the commander with the better force, according to the following table:

    GV ratio  Army
              Modifier

        1          +0

        2          +3

        3          +6

        4          +9

        5          +12

Example: the baron, eager to quell the peasant uprising, rides into town with fifty of his best knights (Grog Values of 5 each, for a total of 250GV). The peasants standing before him have the advantage of numbers - there's over 200 of them - but only 50 have served in the militia. The Grog Value of the peasant force is 150 x 0.2 plus 50 x 0.5, a total of 55GV. The baron has a +9 to his Army Modifier for this battle (250 / 55 = 4.5, rounded down to 4), which added to his bonus for superior tactics, makes a total of +10.

### The Battalion Roll

This takes place at the beginning of each round, before the Movement phase. Note that a round in mass combat lasts about an hour, enough time for a battalion commander to perform one military manoeuvre.

The Battalion roll represents how well the battalion commander gets his men to execute the pre-arranged plan. It benefits from the appropriateness of that overall plan, which was formulated at the beginning of the day, thus the Army Modifier (if any) is used as a bonus to the Battalion Total. A well-thought out plan making full use of the strengths of the force can have a big influence on the outcome of each individual part of that plan.

The result of the Battalion roll (stress die + Battalion Total + Army Modifier) determines the success at which the pre-decided plans are carried out. Rolls are made for both sides of the battle, and the Battalion modifier is generated according to the following table:

    Battalion roll                      Battalion Modifier

    botch                               varies, but at least -2

    0-5                                 -1

    6+                                  +0

    9+                                  +1

    12+                                 +2

    15+                                 +3

                                        additional +1 for each 3
                                        points of the battalion roll

Note that the Battalion Modifier cannot exceed the Army Modifier.

Battle then proceeds as detailed in the Ars Magica 4th Edition Rules (pp.162-170), using the combat totals calculated above, modified by the Battalion Roll.

Example: the baron's forces and the peasant army get ready to fight. Both are small enough to be considered a single battalion. The baron's Com is +1, his Leadership 2. His Battalion total is therefore 1 + 2 + 10 (Army modifier) + 5 (stress roll), or 18, giving him a Battalion Modifier of +4. The peasant leader has a Com of +3 and a Leadership of 3. His Battalion total is 3 + 3 + 7 (stress die) or 13, giving him a Battalion Modifier of +2.

The rest of combat proceeds as usual, treating each Battalion as if it were a single entity. Note that the Battalion Modifier adds to all Combat Totals, with the exception of the Damage Total. In this case, it is the Army Total which is added. This is to simulate the fact that good tactics can be devastating to an opposing force, but how they are applied is determined by the battalion commander (thus the Battalion roll modifiers the Attack Total).

### Determining Damage

For the purposes of determining damage, each battalion is treated as if they were a single person, and have the usual 6 Body Levels. Each battalion also suffers wound penalties as if it were a single entity. The actual proportion of injured men is determined at the end of the day's fighting (see Casualties, below).

If a battalion suffers damage that will take it below Incapacitated, then that battalion can no longer take part in any fighting. However, keep a track of how many Body Levels below Incapacitated that the damage would have taken the battalion. This will be used to determine casualties.

Example: The combat totals of the two forces in our example are:

                        Baron's        Peasant
                         Forces         Forces

    Int                    +1             +2

    Com                    +1             +3

    Leadership             3              3

    Military               +3             +0
    Tactics

    Weapons           Longsword /      Billhook
                      Round shield

    Armour           leather scale     Quilted
                      half armour      hauberk

    Average skill          4              1
    level

    Army Modifier         +10             +0

    Battalion              +4             +2
    Modifier

    Init                   +8            +10

    Atk                    +8             +7

    Dfn                   +13             +3

    Dam                   +14             +8

    Soak                  +10             +2

    Fat                    +9             +0

    Enc                    -2             -3

    Army Total             +4             +0

    Battalion Total        +4             +2

Some clarifications of each phase of combat follow.

### Movement

Each Battalion Commander must declare what actions the battalion under their command will attempt to perform for the duration of the round. Each battalion will have a specific task to perform, according to the tactics decided at the beginning of the day. Once this task has been completed, the battalion commander may have other orders, or they may act as they see fit to assist others. Of course, a battalion commander may decide to disobey his army commander, and act according to his own agenda. If the player is in command of his own character, then there is no problem with this, but if the player has been given control of an NPC commander, then at the very least the storyguide should demand a Loyalty roll from the player, for the commander to directly disobey his superior.

Common actions are as follows:

The Main Bataille usually charges forth to engage the enemy. There may be an exchange of missile or thrown weapons first.

Vanguards usually advance slowly, ensuring that none of the enemy forces try to surround them. Otherwise, units from the vanguard might break off and try to encircle their foe.

The Rearward Bataille generally does not advance. Its job is to protect the main bataille, and it is often a smaller force. It will only be brought into play should the main bataille be seriously beaten.

Note that the actions of each Battalion count as separate sub-melees.

After declarations are all made, each Battalion commander rolls a stress die and adds his own Initiative score, plus any Battalion Modifier. Further modifiers to initiative rolls may apply, according to the usual combat rules (p.163). note that over half of the force must be mounted to gain the appropriate bonuses. Initiative is resolved as usual.

Example: The peasant commander decides however to hold his ground, foolish, as it happens, because the knights charge his men, attempting to engage them in combat. The peasants have an Initiative of 18 - pretty good, but with the baron's forces on horseback, and charging into combat, they get a total of 24. Winning initiative, they are able to get inside the Close range of the peasant's billhooks, and engage at Reach range, and have a +6 first strike bonus, which they will add to their attack rolls.

### First Missiles

Many of the modifiers to Ease Factors for Missile Fire (see table on p.165) are only applicable if the conditions apply to over half of the opposing force. Thus if at least half of a force is obscured in a wood, the attackers get a +3 to hit them. If only a quarter of them are, then no such bonus is obtained.

Note that missiles fired into melee is very foolish. Half of the damage is applied to each opponent. If an odd number of Body levels of damage are inflicted, then the extra level is inflicted on the force on the opposing side to the archers.

Example: An inexperienced battalion commander orders his archers to continue to fire, even after the two forces have clashed and are fighting in melee combat. The archers inflict 3 Body Levels of damage on the opposing force - but they only suffer two of these, with the commander's own men suffering the remaining Body Level.

If one force vastly outnumbers the other, the storyguide may choose to change this bias in the application of damage.

### Melee

As before, melee modifiers must be applicable to at least half of the force else they do not modify the appropriate rolls.

The only modifier that differs to normal melee is that of multiple opponents. When calculating the numbers of opponents, work out how many each warrior can be assumed to face. For each combatant above the first, apply a -3 to the attack roll, as per usually combat. This is regardless of how well trained the opponents are. Three poorly armed peasants can easily bring down a knight from horseback in the middle of a crowded melee. The difference in skill between the two forces comes into play when damage is calculated, for the Army Modifier (which includes relative Grog Values) is added to the Damage total of the better force.

Example: The Knights certainly seem to be in the stronger position. They have a +8 Atk total, +6 for the First Strike, +6 for charging on horseback, giving them a total (with a stress die) of 23. However, they are engaged with an average of 4 opponents each, taking their total down by 9 to 12. The Peasants have a Dfn total of 3 and a further -6 penalty because they are armed with billhooks at Reach Range. Even a lucky roll of 1 followed by 7 isn't enough to save them, making their Dfn total 11. The knights add the +1 advantage to their Damage total of 14 for a total of 15 - the peasants are only lightly armoured, and take a total of 3 Body Levels Damage.

It is their turn to attack. Their attack total is +7, with that lucky roll of 14 earlier this makes 21, but they have a -6 penalty for range and a -3 for wounds, making a 12. The Knights' Dfn total is their roll of 3 plus their Dfn of 13, but with a -9 for multiple opponents, making a total of 7. The +5 bonus is added to the damage total, which is 8, for a total of 15, inflicting one Body Level on the knights.

### Second Missiles

As First Missiles

### Magic

Magic in mass combat is a difficult issue. The storyguide must judge each on a case by case basis, but in general, the effects of magic on a large number of warriors is often rather limited. If magic is used tactically (finding out information about the opponent, creating trenches or defensive walls, for example), and is figured into the plans of the Army Commander, then bonuses could be applied to the Army Roll made at the beginning of the day. As a rough guide, for every 3 magnitudes of effect, 1 can be added to the Army Roll.

Alternatively, magic could be used in more specific situations, and thus assist the Battalion Roll. Most spells that will be capable of causing damage otherwise affecting a whole battalion will be Rituals - Mists of Change, Rain of Oil, Opening the Earth's Pore, for example; but some are not (e.g. Crest of the Earth's Wave). The storyguide should determine the effects that these spells have, but many can inflict damage on a portion of an army.

More useful is when magic is used to assist units carrying out a more specific task, such as capturing an important hostage or killing the army commander.

Any blatant use of magic could have a serious morale effect - the opposing force should immediately make a leadership check (see under Fatigue, below) to see if they are affected, with a modifier appropriate to the magic used (storyguide's discretion). It is also possible that one's own side could be similarly affected - having all your opponent's turned into pigs or smote with lightning can be a harrowing experience in itself.

It should be noted that the Order of Hermes looks very unfavourably on the use of magic to influence mundane affairs.

### Fatigue

After each round of mass combat, a Fatigue roll should be made. In addition, a roll should be made to see if the army surrenders, retreats or routs. Of course, a battalion commander can give the order for these events to occur, but if a force has been beaten badly, it may well retreat on its own.

Example: Both forces have to make Fatigue rolls of 6 or more to avoid losing a fatigue level. The knights easily make it, but the peasants, wounded as they are, fail.

The Battalion Commander should make a stress roll, modified by his Battalion Total and the average Loyalty roll of the men under his command. Wound and Fatigue penalties also apply - the more injured or exhausted a force, the more likely it is to retreat. Consult the following table for the result:

          Roll        Effect

          botch       Battalion no longer under the control of its leader.
                      It will not carry out its part of the plan in the
                      next round, and does not benefit from the Army
                      Modifier. Use only the weapon statistics in
                      calculating combat totals. The commander can attempt
                      to regain control after two rounds.

       Less than 0    Surrender. The force will surrender to their
                      opponents. Mercy may or may not be given by the
                      opposing commander.

           0-1        Rout. The force will leave the field of battle at its
                      fastest speed. This means that their opponents get at
                      least one chance to strike at them undefended. Army
                      and Battalion modifiers are reduced to zero. The
                      commander may attempt to stop this rout next round.

           2-4        Retreat. The force will disengage at the earliest
                      opportunity and leave the field of combat. Army
                      Modifiers are zero, but the battalion commander still
                      has control over his troops. He may attempt to stop
                      the retreat next round

           5+         Remain. The force will remain the battlefield for at
                      least one more round.

Example: The Knights, being Hurt but Fresh, roll a 5, which, with the baron's Battalion total, makes 9. The peasant leader has a +2 Battalion total, and rolls only 4, which means, with their Wound penalty of -3, they would fail the roll if it hadn't have been the strong loyalty (+2) that they feel towards their rebel leader. There will be at least one more hour of combat.

In the second round, the initiatives are 8 (Init Total) + 7 (horseback) + 4 (die roll) = 19 for the knights, and 10 (Init total) + 12 (die roll) = 22 for the peasants. Winning the contest, the commander gets to draw his forces back to Close range and gets a +1 First Strike Bonus. This means that the knights cannot attack this round. The peasants strike with their billhooks - they have an Atk total of 7, and with the stress die get an Attack roll total of 13, even with their wound penalty. The knights have the advantage of being mounted still (+3), but are still penalised by the multiple attackers (-9) - with a roll of 5, their defence total is still only 10. The damage total of the peasants is 8, plus their attack advantage and their first strike bonus, is 14. They inflict another Body Level on the knights.

Both manage to make their fatigue rolls and loyalty rolls at the end of the round. The peasants have managed to do quite well, considering the four-fold difference in Grog Values. This is mainly die to the strength-in-numbers effect. However, all it would take is another successful attack from the knights, and the peasants are likely to be crushed.

### Multiple Battles

Most large armies will have more than one battalion. This can get very complicated for the storyguide, trying to accurately depict a battle. There is a solution however. Ensure that all the PCs that are participating in the war are members of the same battalion. Conduct the fight for that battalion as described above. In addition, conduct one other fight, for the army as a whole. Do not generate a Battalion Modifier - use the Army Modifier instead. This means that the superior army will often win the day - as it should be. However, individual battalions that are of interest to the characters, may win or lose, depending on the skill of their commanders.

### Units

A Unit is the general term for a sub-group of a battalion. Units are charged with a particular task that it part of the overall tactics that are employed by their battalion. Thus, a vanguard battalion might have units that are charged with picking off scouts, units whose job it is to encircle the foe, and units who are meant to break up attempts to encircle their army.

Units can also be useful to account for player characters. As described above under Multiple Battles, things can get very complicated in war, especially if there is a group of characters stuck in the middle. Naturally, players will be more interested what is happening to their own characters, especially if they have a special task in mind.

The suggested way of dealing with this is to count all the PCs as a unit. Deal with the actions of this unit first, then conduct the rest of the battle around them as described above in Multiple Battles. You can run the rest of the fight as a single Army, or treat the battalion that the PCs are in as a separate fight.

Example: A crusading army has swept down onto a town near Constantinople. The PCs have come to the Holy land with the Crusaders, but they are more interested in trying to kill a Moorish commander who has dogged their steps for many years. The PCs are in a unit in the main bataille. When the fighting starts, the PCs start to look around for the Moor, hoping to face him in combat. The storyguide concentrates upon the unit as one fighting force, but it also important to the saga how this battle goes, so at the same time as the PCs are fighting their way through the moors, the storyguide conducts the fighting for the both armies, with one of the PCs controlling the Crusader-General. Whether or not the PCs succeed or fail has little effect on the overall outcome of the whole battle. The Storyguide will only need an Army Modifier to run the rest of the battle.

Alternatively, the main bataille, which the PCs are part of, has the job of charging into the town before the Saracens manage to close the gates to the town, thus forcing a siege. The Arab that the PCs are after might be in control of getting those gates closed. The storyguide might decide to only run battles for the PC's unit, plus the main bataille. In this case he will need both an Army Modifier and a Battalion Modifier.

Running the battles of units can be done in two ways. The first is to treat it as a normal Ars Magica combat. Each PC receives a number of opponents commensurate with the overall troop ratios. This is particularly effective if there are a small number of members in the unit, or if they have magic, which will need to be resolved normally. A Unit Modifier can be generated in the same way as a Battalion Modifier is, but using the statistics of the unit's leader. This acts as a bonus to all the combat totals of the participants, reflecting the skill and tactics of the unit leader.

Alternatively, resolve the combat in the way described in these rules, using the unit leader's characteristics and abilities when generating the combat totals for the unit. Each of these totals are modified by the Battalion Modifier when resolving combat. This method is suitable if the unit is quite large, as it cuts out all the sub-melees. Magic can also have a major effect on a unit scale, where it would have comparatively little effect on a battalion or army scale.

Whenever working on many scales, resolve individual conflicts first, then unit battles, then battalions, then armies. This represents character knowledge - they will be aware of what is going on immediately about them before they will now who has won the whole war. In some situations it might be more effective from a story point of view to deal with the individual or player scale completely first, then once the players have finished their task, switch to the larger scale and conduct the whole battle, to see how the rest of the force did.

Example: The mission against their nemesis was partially successful - the characters managed to defeat many of the Saracen's henchmen and severely wound him, as well as prevent him from closing the gate. However, they find out after completing their mission that the crusading army as a whole was defeated by the moors, and is now in retreat. They find themselves in enemy territory, surrounded by their victories foes, without another European in sight...

## Casualties

At the end of each day, casualties should be determined. Each battalion will have a Body Level score, from this, one can calculate how many men at each would level there are. Note that this table only applies to those that have seen combat!

    Battalion          %    % Hurt      %          %        % Heavily       %         %
    Wound           Unhurt           Lightly   Moderately    Wounded   Incapacitate  Dead
                                     Wounded    Wounded                     d

    Unhurt            40      45       10          5

    Hurt              25      50       20          10           5

    Light Wounds      10      20       50          20          10

    Medium Wounds      5      10       20          40          20           10        5

    Heavy Wounds               5       10          20          35           20        10

    Incapacitated                       5          10          20           50        25

    Incap. -1                                      5           10           45        40

    Incap. -2                                      5           10           25        70

    Incap. -3                                                   5           10        85

If the battalions are to fight again the next day, all of those suffering from heavy wounds or are incapacitated cannot fight again, and the army should be reduced accordingly in size. Each battalion may well be suffering wound penalties as well - use the appropriate penalty for the Body Level

When using this table, account should be made for forces that have been repeatedly in combat. If the battalion fought on the day before, it should be treated as being one Body level lower than it actually is to account for the accumulation of men.

Example: on the first day of combat, a battalion of 200 men returns from the field on the Hurt Body level. Consulting the table above, we find that 5% of the men are heavily wounded and too badly injured to be able to fight tomorrow, so 190 men go out the next day at the Hurt Body Level.

They return at the end of the second day with Medium Wounds. Because they fought yesterday as well, the Heavy Wounds row is used to determine casualties. This reveals that 10% of the battalion is dead (19 soldiers), another 20% is incapacitated (38 soldiers), and 35 % are on Heavy Wounds (another 67 men). Only 66 men will be fit to be fielded should there be a third day of fighting.

Of the original 200 men, two days of fighting has left 19 dead, nearly 40 at death's door, and another 77 men (10 from the first day and another 67 from the second) will take at least 2 months to recover. None of the battalion are unwounded.

If the 66 men are sent out on the third day, they begin the battle as if they had Medium Wounds (-3 to all rolls).

If the storyguide or a player wants to know how badly wounded a specific individual is, then make a simple die roll and add the character's weapon skill - the better the warrior is, the less likely he is to have taken wounds. Consult the following table:

          Roll        Result

       less than 3    3 Body Levels lower than the Battalion he fought with

           3+         2 Body Levels lower than the Battalion he fought with

           6+         1 Body Level lower than the Battalion he fought with

           9+         Same Body Level as the Battalion he fought with

           12+        1 Body Level better than the Battalion he fought
                      with*

           15+        2 Body Levels better than the Battalion he fought
                      with*

           18+        3 Body Levels better than the Battalion he fought
                      with*

* Obviously a character cannot be at a Body Level above the Unhurt level!

Example: One of the companions at a covenant is duty-bound to provide his liege, Baron Wiston with 40 days of military service each year. Wiston is at war with the Baron of Sarum, another noble in the area, who happens to be a friend of the covenant. The players run the battle on behalf of Sarum. Once the battle is over, they want to know how badly injured the knight is, without having to play out that sub-melee. Wiston's troops limped home from the fight on Medium Wounds. However, the knight is a good swordsman (Skill 5). He rolls a simple die and adds five - a total of 12. He is only Lightly Wounded, one Body Level better than the unit in which he fought.